Thank You!

You Can Vote Supporters and Volunteers:

November, 2018

We are going to have an incredible amount of work to do in 2019 to get ready for the new photo ID requirement by 2020. The service our volunteers provide to voters -- explaining complex requirements, voting dates, dispelling myths, and helping people understand the ways to vote with or without photo ID (remember in 2016 no ID was needed for absentee voting!) will be essential in maintaining our high turnout of voters targeted for suppression. That's why we are working quickly to evaluate what we can do to improve and where we need to GROW to support our volunteers voters! We are looking forward to building upon our rapid expansion and outstanding results from 2018.

Look at our incredible results:

1979- number of volunteers trained

174- number of captains trained to lead registration and phonebank events

150,000- number of voters educated via 1:1 conversations across the state

8,381- number of voters registered. 48.15% identified as people of color; over 40% were young people under 25

10,000- number of mailers sent to recent registrants

23,847- number of calls made to new registrants targeted for voter suppression to get out the vote

10,950- number of voice messages left for voters with election information

4,207 - phone conversations with voters to help them make their plan to vote

We held an astonishing 1500 voter registration and education events. Our small staff of 5 full-time and 4 part-time organizers oversaw 1,979 volunteers working across 12 counties. With this large-scale expansion, we are now serving a population over 3.3 million voters--we are able to make change in NC! In 2018, we launched new YCV teams in 6 new counties - including five Eastern NC counties--and built our newer teams in Guilford, Alamance and Mecklenburg. Our work helped fuel historic turnout! Nearly 52 percent of North Carolina voters cast a ballot in this election - in 2014 only 44% of voters participated. In 2014, YCV trained 200 volunteers, registered 2,114 voters and educated nearly 40,000 voters. Look how much we have grown since the last midterm!

Anita Earls, a voting rights champion, civil rights attorney, and longtime friend of YCV, will be on the NC Supreme Court. Black sheriffs were elected in Wake, Buncombe, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, and Pitt counties. Voters rejected two dangerous amendments from becoming enshrined into our state constitution. The work is far from over: Voter ID passed, and we need to make sure the types of acceptable ID will be as broad as possible. We are beginning to work with statewide and national groups that will be working to ensure every voter has acceptable ID. We will stay vigilant in our support for people targeted for suppression in using their voice, including expanding our work assisting voters in detention centers (YCV was just featured in Indyweek). We'll be following up with our turnout numbers: how many YCV registrants voted. The numbers are analyzed by an outside non-profit.

For now, let’s celebrate our work. I am so thankful to you for what we have built and are continuing to build across North Carolina. Thank you for volunteering, donating, leading drives, assembling materials, calling voters, and educating our neighbors. Thank you for believing that a fair democracy means helping all NC citizens, especially low income people, people of color, seniors, people with disabilities and young people to actively engage in the political process on all levels!

If you have not yet had a chance,pleasetake five minutes to complete our annual questionnaire. We will put your name into a drawing for a You Can Vote blue hoodie! Just emailvote@youcanvote.orgwhen you complete your survey so we can add your name to the hat.